Thursday, June 16, 2016

VENGEANCE FROM THE PECOS PIG

A long-dead peccary got revenge on me today. Again. Curse you, Pecos Pig!I killed that pig with my Honda Pilot on a god-forsaken Texas highway seven years and 100,000 miles ago. Why wasn’t my six-week, hellish ordeal to fix the car retribution enough for that suicidal swine (seeThe Pecos Pig)? Plus, there was that delayed breakdown a year later – also javelina-caused (seeRevenge of the Pecos Pig).

Today during routine service of my aging Pilot, the mechanic discovered leaking power steering fluid. Mindy, Kendall Honda’s Service Consultant, called me with the bad news. The entire steering rack assembly would have to be replaced. $1,671. Ouch!It seemed like such an odd car part to break. Mindy said she had seen such a failure just once before. It was caused by an under-engine impact while off-roading. Sounded to me much like the shock of hitting a wild Texas pig at 65 mph. Probably some residual stress-related leak that just took a long time to get bad enough to be noticed.

Mindy has ordered the part and I’m taking my car back at 7:30 Friday morning for the big fix. Given my history with this car, the odds that everything will go well are not good. I think that pig still haunts it.Maybe it’s time for a new one. A car, that is. Mindy gave me tips about the best time of year to buy a new Pilot. Maybe in the fall.I’d gotten home for only an hour when Kendall Honda called. I was expecting more bad news. But it was only Michael thanking me profusely for having had service done today, obviously unaware of my unfixed, leaky power steering fluid problem. He quickly got to the real purpose of his call, which was asking if I had considered trading in my old, 2005 Pilot for a newer vehicle. When I explained my pending $1,671 repair bill, he noticeably brightened. “Well, would you consider putting that money against a down payment on a new car and just trading it in, as is?”“Nice try, Michael,” I laughed. He laughed, too. What else can you do?Damned pig.